Bama's Kim Jacob wins Honda Cup

Alabama's Kim Jacob, who won the all-around title at this year's NCAA women's gymnastics championships, was awarded the Honda Cup as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year on Monday.

Jacob, a senior from Raleigh, North Carolina, beat out Connecticut basketball star Breanna Stewart and cross country standout Abbey D'Agostino of Dartmouth. Jacob is the third gymnast to win the honor and first since Courtney Kupets of Georgia in 2009. Utah's Missy Marlowe won the first for gymnastics in 1993.

The top three were selected by voting of nearly 1,000 NCAA member schools. The Honda Cup winner was selected by the board of directors of the Collegiate Women's Sports Awards program. Previous winners include basketball superstars Maya Moore (2011, 2012) and Candace Parker (2008), track and field legend Jackie Joyner-Kersee (1985), soccer great Mia Hamm (1994) and volleyball star Misty May (1999).

"This is such an amazing feeling to have won the Honda Cup," Jacob said in a news release. "To represent the University and women athletes in general on this stage, I'm so honored and humbled. I'm grateful to be a part of the CWSA family and truly honored to be surrounded by all of these talented female athletes whom I consider friends and hope to stay in touch with for years to come."

Jacob won the 2014 NCAA all-around title and competed in 11 of 12 events at the national championships, most of any gymnast in the meet. She is an 11-time NCAA All-American, including four first-team honors in 2014, the most in the nation. She also was the SEC gymnastics scholar-athlete of the year for the third year in a row and was recently named the Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-America of the Year.

Monday's awards, held at USC Founders Club at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, also included the presentation of the Honda Inspiration award to Kentucky soccer player Arin Gilliland, the Honda Division II player of the year to Bentley soccer player Lauren Battista and the Honda Division III player of the year to UW-Oshkosh track and field athlete Christy Cazzola.